Professor Binna Kandola

Business Psychologist and co-founder of Pearn Kandola. Author of two books - 'The Invention of Difference and 'The Value of Difference’.

Diversity, assessment and development specialist Professor Binna Kandola is a Business Psychologist, Senior Partner and co-founder of Pearn Kandola, where in the last thirty years, he has worked on a wide variety of projects for public and private sector clients both in the UK and overseas.
As well as leading the practice, Binna is particularly interested in the study of gender bias and unconscious bias in organisations. He is the author of two new and critically acclaimed books on these subjects - 'The Invention of Difference: The story of gender bias at work' and 'The Value of Difference: Eliminating bias in organisations', and the co-author of several other management books, one of which 'Managing the Mosaic' won a Special Commendation at the 1994 Management Book of the Year Awards. A regular contributor to the HR and business press he is a sought after and highly regarded conference speaker.
Binna was the first Chair of the Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a member of Sir Robin Butler's Panel of Enquiry into Equal Opportunities in the Senior Civil Service. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the BPS, and in 2002 was elected as Chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology. In January 2004, Binna was invited to join the UK Government's National Employment Panel and appointed Chair of the Minority Ethnic Group.
He is currently a visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School and at Aston University Business School. In 2012 the University of Aston awarded him an Honorary DSc - Doctor of Science. He is a consulting editor for the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology and an editorial board member of Development and Learning in Organisations. He is a regular contributor to the media and has appeared on Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News and the Radio 4 Today Show.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), he was recognised in 2004 by The Independent on Sunday as one of the UK's Top Ten Business Psychologists. Professor Binna Kandola was awarded an OBE in 2008 for his services to Disadvantaged People and Diversity.

According to the news headlines of late, the working world has not been great for women. It seems that issues around unconscious bias are still rife - and they have certainly captured the attention of the media. Currently Google is facing a class action lawsuit from roughly sixty women, all of whom are involved in the same row around issues of sexism at the tech giant.

Why aren't women moving up the regular talent pipeline, and instead falling behind their male counterparts? Unless business leaders and employees alike begin to ask these questions, and really listen and engage with the discussions, we will not be able to foster change or pose solutions which tackle the real causes of this inequality.

For us to progress, we must move past the realm of simply reporting and observing. Even though examining the difference between male and female salaries is an excellent place to start, we must begin to broaden our understanding and endeavour to undertake contextual analyses of women in the working world so we can combat the roots of gender inequality, rather than the symptoms that come to fruition as a result of them.

If we were to believe everything that's been propagated about Donald Trump in the media of late, we'd have to conclude the man doesn't even possess the credentials to be in charge of a market stall - never mind being leader of the free world. His failings in life and indiscretions have been referenced constantly since the beginning of his presidential campaign, and very few political commentators appear to have a positive word to say about him.

When I read the founding principle of International Men's Day (Saturday 19 November) I thought it was some kind of ridiculous joke. After all, highlighting 'the achievements of men' doesn't just happen just once a year - it happens every single day.

17/11/2016 16:42 GMT

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